I have a Honeywell TH3210D1004 Thermostat and a carrier high

Customer Question

I have a Honeywell TH3210D1004 Thermostat and a carrier high efficiency heat pump? (I think , I included pics of everything), here's the deal I wired everything up and when I cut the circuit breaker back on the one that says "Heat" arcs outs and breaks off. I need help here...

You must have a short in the furnace if that breaker is indeed for it. You will need to do basic investigation here to uncover the short as that should not be difficult since it is tripping the breaker immediately. A low voltage wiring issue is not going to trip a breaker.

I can only tell you what to do here- you will of course need to do with the answer what you see fit.

we were hit by a tornado 1 year ago, and I have had problems ever since with the heat and the a/c. i have 2 units one for upstairs and one for downstairs. The heat wasnt working on the one downstairs so i put the thermostat from upstairs on the one downstairs and the heat would work but the thermostat didnt kick the heat off when it reached preset temp. Now I tried turning on the a/c today and it does nothing. I looked all over online for wiring diagrams to assist me, but to no avail. Now I'm assuming I have a bad circuit breaker??? We are really just very pinched for funds as I lost my job last year bc of the tornado, so doling out alot of money for an HVAC tech isnt feasable at this time...

ok i put a link to a pic of the unit, when you say front door, can you look at the pic and tell me in relation to the pic which "door" you are talking about? thanks actually here is the link to the pic

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gander_photos/6993862903/

Customer:replied 3 years ago.

ok I pulled the door off, I don't see anything burnt or arced out. I the pulled the 2 service disconnects and tried the circuit breaker and it works fine. Could one of the fuses in the service disconnects be bad?

we want to remove a component at a time from the syatem while ohming out the circuit.

Ex....mark all motor wires and unhook..then ohm...if still moving...the unhook from a relay and ohm...the remove wires from compressor and ohm..look for domed tops on the capactiors (the round cannisters the size of a pop can).

Eventually you will get no needle movement to ground....this will identify the last item you unhooked as having the short.

Lets say you remove 3 wires that attach to motor...you would put one lead on the motor wire and the other to ground...to that all the motor wires...if there is no needle movement then the motor is not shorted..

i unhooked the blue wire, checked the wire and the lead it was connected to, needles moves both times, i then unhooked the black wire next to it and the needle moves on the component but not the wire. I removed the other wires on this same component and the needle didnt move on any of them...lol.. i may be lost... i also looked at this component http://www.flickr.com/photos/gander_photos/6848129274/in/photostream and dont see any bulging of any kind...

does it look correct... i also noticed that the wiring color on the outdoor unit are different then what i had hooked up for instance, the blue wire on the outdoor unit is hooked to the "Y" terminal, do i just need to match what is on the unit as far as wiring goes?

ok it was my best guess, but i un hooked a large yellow wire on the left hand side of the contactor that led to the capacitor, i unhooked a large red one that was connected to a black one and the red part led through a hole at the top towards the compressor (it was on the top right position of the contactor), then i unhooked the purple one on the bottom right of the contactor, i put the service disconnects back in and the circuit breaker still trips... am I guessing that we are isolating the part that is bad??? would it help to disconnect everything and hook them up one wire at a time??

ok, i also just took a pic of a switch that I flipped before I started talking to you yesterday, its on the top left of the pic, when i switched it yesterday there was no way to turn it back the other way, i just noticed however that it is back to a white position... heres the pic

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gander_photos/6997175629/in/photostream

ok now i'm going to take off the wires and do as you said...

Customer:replied 3 years ago.

ok now i'm confused you said to take "ALL" the wires off of the board outside, correct? and then just jumper the "R" and "Y" correct?... i'm asking bc it appears that there are 2 large gauge wires going to the board one on "C" and one on "W2" and it is a large white wire...

very sorry, had an emergency. I work on hospital equipment and had a chiller for an MRI machine go down.

Ok...at the circuit board wire a jumper from R to Y...tell me if outdoor unit fan in top and the blower for registers runs. Then if so..wire R to Y and Y to O. Tell me if it ac's..if so we are ready to wire thermostat for cooling.

see this pic but this time we are looking at the relay above the part you replaced. It has 2 black wires, a red wire, and then 2 smaller wires at the bottom end...do you see this and understand which part I refer to?

ok 2 black wires from the top of relay taped together, nothing happens unless i push the button in on the contactor, then i can only tell that the fan on top of the unit runs, dont know about the blower

I do not know what was done with the wiring of the red, brown and blue control wires but it involeved the indoor blower relay.

We by passed that relay to allow the blower to come on with a call for cooling (R to Y).

With the relaay bypassed and the compressor, outdoor fan and indoor fan running we should have a discharge temperature of at least 15 degrees cooler than the air being sucked in.

We know the motor works but has been rewired, we know the fan in top works, we know the compressor works because temp of air is different when O is hooked or not hooked.

So, we have all the major items accounted for. But it appears there is a cooling issue. With O unhooked it goes into heat by default. With O attached it is supposed to cool. With 99 coming out of register shows the air is actually being heated...which leads me to think reverse valve dropped out.

If the R, Y, O is jumped together and the air coming out is warm....we have an issue with either too little freon, or bad reverse valve.

well i see that the reversing valve runs between $200 - $500 so I guess we're out we dont have that... I dont start this new job until Mar 26th, of course dont get paid til the 19th of April... Do you know any techs or companies in the Chattanooga area that might work with us?

yeah, this one is new and it looks a whole lot different then what we were working on, 2 sets of wires inside the unit going to the thermostat board... i found a burnt 5 amp fuse so hopefully if i replace it we might be in business... my only question is this, the Y and W1 are jumpered, does the yellow or the white go to that, there also a W2... billy I know you've been on this all day, i really do appreciate it, you certainly gave me more than $38 worth...

ok dont know if ur back from ur break, i get the fan to run, hook up the others, it blinks "Cool On" on the thermostat, the yellow wire coming out of the thermostat is twisted together with a white wire, so the yellow wire is not actually connected to the board... i also comitted a huge sin, i couldnt find a 5 amp fuse, so i just used a 10 amp, i just figured if it runs then it isnt the problem, i will get a 5 amp tmro...

Customer:replied 3 years ago.

ok it seems to be working fine now, it blinked for a few and now it is on and blowing cold air... i'll just have to wait and see if it shuts off when it reachs the preset temp...

thanks again for all your help... i wish we could have fixed the other one but we cant fix broken...lol

actually i did, i thought the upstairs unit was running fine, however i never checked to see if the fan on top of the unit outside was running, it wasnt so it was basically just the fan running all night...also I didnt leave a tip as I just dont have it at this point, when I get settled I will ask you a simple question and take care of you as I do appreciate all the help...

yep, all the filters etc are clean, this unit is in my attic and is new (within 6 years), outdoor unit is clean too... so I guess it freon, is there anyway to really screw up putting refrigerant in, like too much etc...

thanks Billy, also found out last night that I have mice in my air ducts to the unit we didnt get fixed, I wonder if that had anything to do with the unit going bad?? Now I have to get rid of these stinking mice...dont get hit with a tornado, its a nightmare...lol

ok billy, last question, promise...I dont think that refrigerant is my problem... i took a picture of the coils inside the unit in the attic, they are frozen over... i left the access panel off all night...could it be that the blower was sucking air from the hot attic instead of getting from the return air which passes over the frozen coils? if so then i'm just a dumba$$...lol...please advise...thanks again

This expert is wonderful. They truly know what they are talking about, and they actually care about you. They really helped put my nerves at ease. Thank you so much!!!!AlexLos Angeles, CA

Thank you for all your help. It is nice to know that this service is here for people like myself, who need answers fast and are not sure who to consult.GPHesperia, CA

I couldn't be more satisfied! This is the site I will always come to when I need a second opinion.JustinKernersville, NC

Just let me say that this encounter has been entirely professional and most helpful. I liked that I could ask additional questions and get answered in a very short turn around. EstherWoodstock, NY

Thank you so much for taking your time and knowledge to support my concerns. Not only did you answer my questions, you even took it a step further with replying with more pertinent information I needed to know. RobinElkton, Maryland

Ask a HVAC Technician

Get a Professional Answer. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.

26 HVAC Technicians are Online Now

Type Your HVAC Question Here...

characters left:

Disclaimer: Information in questions, answers, and other posts on this site ("Posts") comes from individual users, not JustAnswer; JustAnswer is not responsible for Posts. Posts are for general information, are not intended to substitute for informed professional advice (medical, legal, veterinary, financial, etc.), or to establish a professional-client relationship. The site and services are provided "as is" with no warranty or representations by JustAnswer regarding the qualifications of Experts. To see what credentials have been verified by a third-party service, please click on the "Verified" symbol in some Experts' profiles. JustAnswer is not intended or designed for EMERGENCY questions which should be directed immediately by telephone or in-person to qualified professionals.